Alcohol related social and health problems remain a pressing concern, particularly for minorities in the United States. The purpose of this Planning and Development proposal is to promote alcohol research expertise and infrastructure development at Xavier University (XU), a Historically Black College/University (HBCU). It is believed that the development of such expertise and infrastructure at minority serving institutions such as XU will ultimately lead to identification, characterization, and reduction in alcohol-related health disparities in minority populations including African Americans. The proposed planning and development will be implemented via a cooperative agreement with NIAAA, and will be conducted in partnerships with the Alcohol Research Center at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC), a research-intensive institution with established expertise in alcohol research. It is therefore expected that both the NIAAA assigned staff and the collaborating LSUHSC faculty will be involved substantially as a partner with the XU faculty and staff. Accordingly, the principal investigator at XU, and the ARC program director at LSUHSC (Unit I) will jointly coordinate the proposed 3-year plan. All activities will be conducted collaboratively, in a mutually beneficial manner, and will address the following three areas: Alcohol research pilot studies including a study on alcohol related health disparities (Unit II); A variety of alcohol education programs designed to motivate minority students to pursue careers in research (Unit III); and Outreach and Dissemination activities designed to link alcohol research outcomes to healthcare professionals serving minorities and to the minority community itself (Unit IV). Training and career development activities for XU faculty and staff are proposed in context of the above three areas. It is anticipated that such multidisciplinary approach will develop and sustain preliminary research studies and other alcohol related programs that will become the basis for generation and submission of competitive grant applications by XU faculty. [unreadable] [unreadable]